Many letterboxers keep careful track of their "find count". ==History== The origin of letterboxing can be traced to Dartmoor, Devon, England in 1854.
William Crossing in his Guide to Dartmoor states that a well known Dartmoor guide (James Perrott) placed a bottle for visiting cards at Cranmere Pool on the northern moor in 1854.
Originally coined in the USA, it is similar to the concept of letterboxing where clues lead to sealed boxes to be found in a type of treasure hunt. Questing originated with the placing of a treasure box at Cranmere Pool in Dartmoor, England, by James Perrott in 1854.
In 1938 a plaque and letterbox in Crossing's memory were placed at Duck's Pool on southern Dartmoor. The first Dartmoor letterboxes were so remote and well-hidden that only the most determined walkers would find them, allowing weeks to pass before the letter made its way home.
Until the 1970s there were no more than a dozen such sites around the moor, usually in the most inaccessible locations.
Over time, the hobby spread, and there are now more than 5,000 treasures to be found in and around Dartmoor. Vital Communities, a non-profit organization in White River Junction, Vermont established the Valley Quest program as a sense-of-place education program in 1995.
is generally considered to have started with a feature article in the Smithsonian magazine in April 1998.
Gatherings in the US usually have a special, one-day "Event stamp." At some gatherings, boxes are created or donated to be planted nearby specifically for the gathering attendees to find. The first gathering in North America was held in November, 1999, at The Inn at Long Trail in Killington, Vermont. ==Types== There are now many different kinds of letterboxes, each with some specific distinction.
The growing popularity of the somewhat similar activity of geocaching during the 2000s has increased interest in letterboxing as well. Clues to American letterboxes are commonly published on several different websites. ==Gatherings== Letterboxers organize events, usually called meets or gatherings.
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